A New Option
by CrackedShot
Summary: "Nothing is Never an Option" has sat dormant to long, and i am on a journey to finish it. this is the product of that Journey
1. chapter 1

**Author's note:** This story is a continuation of the fic _Nothing is Never an Option_ by _GleefulHeretic_ who claims that this story is only on hiatus but has not updated for several years, which has compelled me to finish it. You will need to read the first part from the previously mentioned account to understand this because I can't do a recap worth a damn. If you have any suggestions or whatever PM me or leave a comment (although I doubt anyone will actually read this, but losers can hope right?) and keep in mind this is my first fic so please, constructive criticism instead of just tearing me a new asshole. Enjoy!

_

 _Story begins about five minutes before the end of chapter four when Janey goes into the kitchen to "clean up"_

_

 _Keep it together Springs._

The water running from her kitchen tap was not _nearly_ cold enough as she repeatedly splashed her face. _Stupid water._

But Athena said she was _coming back._

She splashed more water on her face.

She needed to keep it together.

This whole Athena-returning thing could be shot to hell if she pulls another move like she did with Athena's scarf. Janey had intentionally left it out of Athena's other clothing as to create an intimate moment between the two. But when Athena had held out her hand, Janey just walked right up and put the garmet on Athena herself. In those brief moments she nearly lost control. She could just see it all.

 _Janey walks tward Athena, scarf in hand, but in the moment they are close enough to one another Janey grabs Athena, pinning her to the wall of her apartment. "I need you", she whispers into the armor-clad woman's ear. "I need you so desperatly that if you leave here and I stay, it will be the end of me". The gladiator stares into her eyes, pulls her closer, and whispers "then come with me", adding a level of innuendo that would make Moxxi blush._

Janey splashed her face again and willed away her naughty thoughts. _Stupid vagina._ Did it not know what would happen if Athena rejected her? The universe would basically implode.

But then she remembered the kiss they kind-of shared the night before, and her resolve evaporated into the air. The way Athena looked at her, Janey was amazed that she ever fell asleep. She sighed, ending it in a short rasberry, knowing what she had to do and steeling herself in the single breath. In the end, she needed to come clean with Athena, she needed to tell her exactly what she felt, lay her cards on the table, and hope for the best. If she said no, well this universe had a long enough life. And if she said _yes_...

Janey splashed her face again.

She took a deep breath, wiped her face, and strode proudly into her living room. Athena was there, standing by the door holding something Janey couldn't see, mumbling to herself incoherently, although Janey could make out the words "sorry" and "Jess" being used more than once. If Janey had to guess, she would say that Athena was having a panic attack. "Athena" Janey said, slowly coming up behind her, "you alright?". Janey peered over the shorter woman's shoulder to see what she was holding, instantly recognizing the item and mentally facepalming herself for owning it.

It was a millitary issue helmet with built in thermal sensors, which Janey had been planning to sell for some time but hadn't found a buyer. She had never realized, until now, that it was an _Atlas_ helmet, probably built for one of the assassin units they employed. Assassin units that Athena used to be a part of.

"Hello? 'Thena, you in there?" she asked, trying to hide the worry from her voice with varying degrees of success. Athena's breathing became more shallow and Janey thought she may have been hyperventilating but she wasn't sure. She wasn't exactly a doctor. If she was, she would've known how to save Stephanie when the Kraggons-. She shook her head and forced herself to stay in the moment. She put a hand on the gladiator's shoulder and said her name again, this time the fear for the shorter woman was rather apparent.

The next moment was a blur. Athena let out an earsplitting scream, almost as if she had been uttering a battlecry or had been shot, then spun around and collided her fist into Janey's jaw. There was a sickening crack, and for a moment Janey felt as if she was floating, but once the floor hit her, the pain came. It shot into her jaw, to her brain, and back to her jaw again, both causing and silencing a scream of her own. She cupped the side of her jaw and slowly rolled over onto her back. She could feel tears welling in her eyes but refused to let them fall. She looked into Athena's eyes, a thousand thoughts racing through her head but refusing to speak because she thought her jaw might just snap off, instead attempting to put all of her pain and all of her confusion and all of her fear into a single gaze.

Athena's features softened from thier snarl, then morphed into a look of pure terror. She took a step back, visibally recoiling from the act she had just comitted. Genuine fear, like that of a child in a hurricane, coated her entire being. "Janey... I-I'm..." Athena uttered. _She's going to run,_ Janey thought, and for some reason, she felt compelled to try to stop her. The junker leaned forward, still on her bum, and reached a hand out to try and get ahold of Athena, or to elicite some positive reaction. This seemed to have the reverse of it's intended effect however, because when Janey did this, a single tear fell down her cheek.

Athena gasped as if the wind had been knocked out of her and her eyes grew to the size of saucepans. "I'm sorry" the gladiator let out a strangled sob on the last syllable, then bolted for the exit. Janey stood up and went to follow her crying her name as she crossed the doorway into the hall. As soon as she did however, an electric jolt of pain shot into her jaw, causing her to fall to the floor.

There, in the hallway of her apartment, with the door to her home wide open, watching her love run from her, cradling what was at the minimum a dislocated jaw, Janey wept. She wept for the first time scince her beloved Stephanie had died, losing her only way of escape in the process to Deadlift, nearly a year ago.

She wept for her loves, those gone and those going, for her pain, for her embarrasment, and for her loss. Janey Springs, the ultimate optimist, the shining smile in a black hole, the "scrapper with a smile", wept like a small child lost in the supermarket.

She wept alone

 **A/N :** Ta-da! don't worry, this will end on a happy note, or else _i'd_ ball my eyes out. please rewiew and if you want to be a beta reader, PM me and ill learn how to make you that! Please remember i am using this on my mobile so i am cursed by its limitations. andsorry about the shortness, the rest will be longer.


	2. Chapter two, or six if you think

"Is dislocation with hairline fracture, Insta-health will no help you" Nina's voice rang through the infirmary. Well, perhaps _rang_ was to polite of a word as Nina's voice always made Janey cringe as if a buzz ax had been dragged across the floor. _Her bedside manner must be horrrible_ she thought. The strange and burly woman handed Janey a bottle of pain pills and what appeared to be a strip of an old t-shirt. "Cloth is to stop talking, tie under jaw to hold jaw in place. Pills are for pain from when you _do_ talk, will hurt", Nina said while walking back to one of her cabinets. Janey buisied herself by eyeing the table she was sitting on and trying to figure out how a blood stain like that was possible. She soon realized that these were not comforting thoughts.

Nina returned with a sheet of paper and an expression Janey wasn't sure if she liked. Then again, there were many things about Nina she did not like. She was handed the paper, which turned out to be the bill, with what seemed to be an excessive amount of zero's penned on the end in pencil. "I can't pa-AAAGHH" Janey screamed out. "Silly _Lapushka,_ talking hurt, remember? Now, as for payment, is right to assume you lack money, _da?_ " Janey couldn't speak so instead she simply glared daggars at the woman. _Of course i can't pay it, ya backwards-talkin git, it's a small fortune written_ _on that damned slip of paper._

"You see, Timburr Longwood, he leave Nina". Janey, suddenly _very_ disturbed, scooted back on the examinatuon table as the Nina neared her. "And Nina knows, short assassin leave you after what look like rough love by look of jaw," Janey was quickly running out of space to scoot as Nina closed the distance to a terrifingly small gap. The pusedo-doctor smelled of decay and blood, a scent of many failed operations that now followed the woman like an omen. "Maby we forget about bill you owe and we have some fun," Janey could feel her breath on her skin as she tried to scoot away, only to have her but slide off the end. She let out a small squeak, which Nina took the wrong way, setting a hand on the scrapper's knee." _da?"_

Janey never considered herself a voilent person, but drastic times called for drastic measures. She grit her teeth, metaphorically speaking, and did the only thing she could think to do. She swung her right arm into a strong hook. Nina failed to see the blow coming in and took the hit hard. As Nina went down Janey snagged the pills, rolled off the table, and bolted for the door.

By the time she made it to the People's Liberation Statue she stopped to check if she was being followed. Seeing that there were no prusuers, she began to wonder what her next action should be. The first thing that came to mind was Athena. To find her, slap her, demand an explanation, kiss her, and-

The junker shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts, but all that did was send more pain through her jaw, making ger remember to take some of the pills she grabbed. After swallowing a couple of the dry pills, a much more pressing matter came to mind aside from her misadventures with the gladiator. Despite how much she wished she could put attention tward finding and dealing with Athena, Nina had just became a larger problem. The strange woman would be looking for Janey, to pull cash or a night in bed, it diddn't matter. Janey lacked the first and refused to give the second. Janey sighed and tried to come up with a plan.

_

 _Twenty-six_ Athena counted to herself as the next scav fell to her blade. The poor souls were the first thing she encountered when she had left Concordia, and as such, were feeling the unimaginable wrath of a goddess rain down upon them. There were thirty when she arrived. The bastards started running after eighteen though, and now she was beginning to lose sight of the remaining few. Number Twenty-Seven, seeing that he could not outrun the ex-assassin, turned around in an attempt to hold his ground. He pulled a grenade from his belt, but she was already upon the man. Athena wrestled the grenade from his hand, and then smashed it through his oxygen mask, then kicked off his chest, knocking him down while launching herself away from the blast. She heard the man screaming, then a loud crack. She felt a warped sence of satisfaction as the blood particles flew upwards, unaffected by elpis's weak gravity. **_This is what you are_** , a voice spoke in her ear, an old voice that had been hamnered into her mind by a company she had eradicated from the planet, a company she hated, but the voice remained. It sat in the back of her mind, quieter than it gad once been, but still heard. Janey had nearly drowned that voice, but she was gone, and it was back. She felt a wave of regret wash over her at the thought. _Well, i'm the one that's gone,_ she thought. _But maby i can go back and expla- **NO!!**_ , the voice roared. **_You're a WEAPON_**. "I should have known!", she heard the next scav before she actually saw him. Still in the air, she threw Xiphos at the sound and landed on the ground just as she heard a rather feminine scream fill her ears.

"Janey!" she whipped around, suddenly desprate to find and help the woman she had impaled. _I hurt her,_ she thought. _She came to find me and I hurt her_ again. To her suprise it was not Janey but rather a female scav, an oddity in itself, which she had impaled into to the clifface with her sword. The unknown woman was pinned and rapidly running out of blood as she attempted to remove the blade from her midsection. "Stop that" Athena said as she calmly walked up to the soon-to-be-departed woman. "It will only make it worse for you". Athena grabbed the hilt of the blade. **_Yes,_** the voice purred. **_Strike her down, this is what you do, why you are here,_** **what you were made for**. She could feel the anticipation, the bloodlust, building up inside her as she locked eyes with the woman and prepared to give in to the feeling inside her.

Before she could make her move however, a hand feebly gripped hers, its owner's eyes boring into her own, pleading a silent plea. "Please", the woman barely wheezed out. "Janey, is it? This isn't what you were made for. Just..." She took a long, ragged, breath before continuing. "Let me go, ok? Let me go and i'll show ya that this isn't everything ... ok?". Athena, stunned by the woman's words, stood there for several seconds with her mouth hanging open. She then straightened her shoulders and wiped her face in an attempt to regain her composure. "I'm not Janey" she said flatly, "and how did you you know that I was made for this?" the gladiator asked. The scav took another pained breath and gave Athena the most pathetic smile, but was still pretty good givin the current circumstances. "Well, not-Janey, I thought you _were_ Janey because that's the only name I heard you say, and you said...", another breath, this time followed by painful coughing "... well, you growled, actually, that this is what you were made for... but you're not", the woman was clearly making an attempt to look convincing, but it seemed impossible while being impaled. "There's still hope on this moon ya know? After all that's what she's named for, Elpis, that is. There's always hope for someone up here, I'm hoping to get out of this right now", the scav woman began to drift to sleep after saying this. Athena grabbed an insta-health from her storage deck and injected it into the other womans thigh, watching as the blood returned to her face. When the woman looked up, she was smiling. "If you're gonna do that, i've got a good feeling about this escape thing" she said.

"It's not escape if i let you go," Athena said, withdrawing Xiphos and returning it to the sheath at her hip. "Well, if I ever see you again, I owe you a drink", the woman stood and began walking in tbe direction of Concordia. Before Athena could stop, she heard herself say "the last time someone bought me a drink, it ended with me stabbing you,". The woman turned around with a look of suprise mixed with blood loss, the insta-health not having completly brought her back, then reached into her back pocket. Athena was on her, blade at the scav's neck, in less than a second.

"It's just an echo, I swear" her eyes widend up enough for Athena to belive her, "figured it'd be a better payment than that drink eh?". Athena reached around the woman to pull out what was in fact, an echo recorder. The message was a bounty, from Jack. "Get out of here, Twenty-eight,". The gladiator heard her running, but did not look. The job was vauge in description, only saying that it would involve "data recovery". She did not like the idea of being under Jack's thumb again. She would not be a puppet to the man.

But that was a lot of zero's in the paybox.

 _Be loyal to the mission,_ she thought. _Not loyal to him._ She hit the accept icon and a message appeared.

[THANK YOU FOR ANWSERING HYPERION'S SUMMONS. PLEASE PROCEED TO THE DESTINATION ON YOUR HUD FOR BREFING. YOUR BIOMETRICS HAVE ALREADY BEEN IMPUT TO THE HYPERION FAST-TRAVEL NETWORK. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON]

"Off I go" she said to no one in particular, her inner demon satisfied with the new job. There was another feeling. One that she couldent identify, but decided to keep. She saw the last two scavs in the distance waiting for her. _It's thier lucky day,_ she thought, _I have bigger fish to fry._

 _And a debt to repay,_ her small feeling said.

_

 **A/N:** Sorry about the wait.Please review if you have any ideas or critisisms (yes, I know I spelled that wrong).


	3. Emotional (in)security

_It's for Springs. It's for Springs. It's for Springs._

She was strapped into some strange computer, about to be sent into the Fr4g-tp bot along with her other _companions_. The word brought an unpleasant taste into her mouth.

 _It's for Springs. It's for Springs._

Nisha was speaking to some kind of claptrap that was _inside_ of Fr4g-tp, the Sub-conscious or something. No, that wasn't right was it? Was it Admin, Source Code? She couldnt remember. She didn't care, so long as she got what she wanted, so long as she got the money. Springs would forgive her if she had enough cash. Money always calmed angry hearts.

 _It's for Springs. It's for Springs. This is what ATLAS would have done._

As she watched Fr4g-tp's greatest fear materialize before her just to give Jack a laugh, Athena couldn't pretend that she was still the good guy.

T _his is what ATLAS would have done. It's for Springs. You're a **monster**. NO! It'sforSpringsIt'sforSpringsIt'sforSprings!!_

The conscious wasn't going to help them anymore, not because they were bountyhunters, not because they had systematically destroyed several parts of his mind, but because they hated him for just trying to help them. Because they were bad people. Because they hurt someone who just wanted to help.

 ** _Monster._**

Athena provided minimum suppourt during the final battle against EOS, partly because she just wasn't much use. She kept other reasons for herself. When they gave the H-source to Jack, Athena left. She didn't need to stick around. She knew what he was going to do with it, even if she pretended that she didn't.

 _Forgive me Janey_.

-

If nothing else, Moxxi leaving Elpis was certainly lucrative for Janey, albeit not so much that she could hope to pay Nina's "debt". Apparently there were several mechanic jobs that Moxxi had secretly been working on throughout Concordia, from upgraded security for that creppy Earl guy to mantaining the generators that kept the air-dome around the city. The latter of the two was rather lucrative. Currently, she was tethered to the wall above the city's heat regulator. The device was a cylinder that stuck out of the primary ventilation system and all she needed to do was yank the old one and replace it for a rather high paycheck.

On the surface, it was ridiculously easy. In reality she had been forced to scale a verticle metal wall on a spare cable she had found, and once she managed the cimb a new 320 Kelvin problem arose. Janey simply couldn't stay up there beside the regulator for more than a few seconds, and as soon as she pulled that thing out, It was going to get _much_ hotter.

So she bought a heat-proof shield which later turned out to be a heat-resistant shield and cost three-quarters of what she was making off this job. Which was how she ended up hanging three hundred meters above Concordia with burning hands replacing what looked like a filter filled with Suggarath methane and sludge. Once the job was done and she had finished cursing herself out Janey contacted the police force Cl4p-tp to notify him that she was finished and in dire need of her reward. What she got in response was static.

 _Strange_ , she thought to herself. _The bugger is never not around to pick up and bore or annoy everything in his vicinity to death._

By the time she had found said bugger, the small unit had already been disabled and looted at least once. Janey thought many things in that moment, but all she said was "Wasted paycheck," as she walked to her imporium for a quick nap at her desk, as Nina had someone watching her apartment at all times.

-

Clearing out the wastes with a sniper rifle was perhaps the closest Athena had ever came to meditation in her life. Elpis had such low gravity, and the high-quality Jakobs rifle fired at such velocity, she didn't need to even adjust her shot, just line up the crosshairs, make sure no one was looking, and squeeze the trigger. This simple plan, along with an oxygen geyser beside her, had allowed the assassin to clear an encampment of about twenty Scavs from the next two towers away, without ever arousing suspicion.

So in short she was procrastinating. Jack had made good on his payment(with several death threats and "employment opportunities" thrown in for good measure), Athena knew what she needed to do, she had the means, and here she was sitting around taking potshots at relatively innocent scavs.

 _Useless. Insobordinate. Lazy. **Monster**_.

At least she had her thoughts to keep her company.

Thoughts like how to approach a certain junk dealer. There wasn't much to it if she was being practical. Go to Concordia, give Janey the cash, explain maby, ask for forgiveness, avoid getting shot throughout. Beyond that, Athena couldn't see clearly enough to have the next move planned out, but still, it was a better plan than what she had when she took down ATLAS. That had been three steps. Attack everything she could, get help if possible, try not to die (optional).

So she had the tools, the plan (Sort of), and the desire, so what was holding her back? The truth was fear, but every time such a though would try to sneak up on her, it was shot down by the professional assassin in her mind that was the gladiator's complete inability to recognize her own feelings. So the lie she told herself was that she couldn't acess the Moon Zoomy station anymore for... some reason. She didn't know what but who knows? Maby it Janey rigged it to explode when it recognizes her as revenge. Maby it won't work anymore because Janey took her out of the system. Maby it will work just fine and a special note will show up begging her to come back and talk because Janey is just _that_ understanding and if she just came back this could all be figured out because you don't need money or voilence to solve problems as long as you just come back and _explain_ because please 'Thena I just want to see you again and it's okay I promise because I'm perfect.'

Or maby it will explode. Athena didn't know, she couldn't take that risk. And she _needs_ a ride to get back to Concordia. And of course some mystic demon of fate shows up right then to torment her with exactly what she asked for because an unsuspecting Scav rode into view on his buggy. He was too far away to see her but not far away enough for her not to hit him and it's a straight shot that she couldn't miss if she tried.

 _It's for Springs._

-

Athena gave the idea of sneaking in some serious thought before she remembered that she had just played a major role in the removal of both the Meriff and, more recently, the policing Cl4p-tp. It was almost surreal to just walk in. The city had, suprisingly, not fallen to complete chaos but seemed rather unchanged even though it was in more or less a state of Anarchy, giaint sky **H** threatening "order" notwithstanding.

The walk to Springs' apartment was quiet, with only the occasional local repeating the same two or three things to themselves. Then, Athena did _not_ stand at the elevator for a solid four minuets contemplating her decision and finally she _didn't_ stand right in front of Janey's door for another ten minuets.

After all that not standing around was done, Athena opend the door to the first place she had ever not wanted to leave but was to scared to stay around in her life. Only to find the entire apartment ransacked.

Athena knew a house raid when she saw one. She had taken place in enough to know the signs. The broken door latch meant that the assailants were either to stupid to sneak in or didn't care, the upturned and cut open furniture meant that they were looking for _something_ not _someone_ , which meant Janey was either A) safe or B) dead. Frantically, the assassin searched every room for a sign of struggle, a bloodstain, or worse, a body. However, never let it be said that luck didn't occasionally smile upon her, as the only thing she found was a note crudely stabbed into the wall.

Walking over to the peice of paper carefully Athena read the sloppily written note.

 _Janey Springs,_

"RrrAaaghh!" the man fell from the ceiling, pinning Athena to the ground on her stomach. She bucked upwards in an attempt to free herself, but her surprise assailant was too heavy for her to shake easily. He went for something on his belt, and when she felt the shift in weight, Athena bucked again, this time turning around, still unable to free herself but landing on her back so she could see the tall brute of a man on top of her. She sent her right hand down to his waist, feigning an attempt to wrestle whatever he was reaching for on his belt. He took the bait and brought both hands down to stop her. In that moment he exposed his ribs and Athena quickly took several jabs at his liver with her left fist. The second hit of her armored gauntlet cracked a rib, and the third doubled the man over in pain. She clapped his ears and kicked up one last time, this time flipping the man over and reversing thier positions. Reaching blindly behind her for a weapon, Athena brought what was probably a rather expensive lamp down on his head, only to be partially blocked by the knife the man had finally managed to pull out of his belt. The hit was enough to daze him though, so Athena grabbed the knife from his feeble grip and brought the end down into his neck, a fountain of crimson spraying into her eyes. She noted the patch on his right arm -half a cog with a grenade in it, probably some local gang- and re-attmpted to read her letter.

 _Janey Springs,_

 _My men are to pay you visit and collect debt. If you cannot pay, Nina's offer still stands. Lapushka, Nina can be very gentle. Or not._ _See you soon._

- _Nurse Nina_.

The bile that rose in her throat was not unfamiliar to Athena. It was the kind of taste she welcomed when she worked for the Crimson Lance. It was the taste that meant whoever she was going up against, whatever they were doing, they deserved what she was bringing to them. Lust-filled doctors with southernly moral compasses was a suprisingly common issue with ATLAS, and Athena had been given express premission to deal with them in whatever way she saw fit. It was one of the few times she had actually felt like she was doing something undeniably good, when she struck down someone who was clearly evil and the bile fell from her throat proving that she was doing something bad to someone worse.

She bolted out of Janey's trashed apartment, making the absolute most of Elpis's low gravity as she raced past the elevator and up the stairs, not even bothering to touch the ground on the final level, instead just bounding off the narrow stairway walls. By the time she had made it to surface level an infiltration strategy had developed in her mind.

Two quick hops and she was atop the shop roofs above the city. Two more and she was staring down at the control panel to Nina's shop. Athena had no idea how these things actually worked, but the ways to use them to her advantage when breaching had been drilled into her mind from as far back as she could remember. With a single stroke of Xiphos she had shut the emergency airlock doors and cut the power to the shop. The crawl through the air vent was slightly more complicated than expected, but the view was worth it. Three men that might as well have been wearing t-shirts that said "hired goon", all with the same mark as the man from Janey's apartment, were all trapped inside with the less-than-honerable-pusedo-doctor. One was frantically pulling on a door latch, his sense of self-preservation apparently greater than his desire for money. The second had apparently gained the opposite idea, as he raised his rusty DAHL rifle protectively keeping Nina behind him, probably hoping for a raise if he saved her skin. He would not succeed. The third stood directly under Athena's vantage point. Doing his best to keep the other two calm and saying things that were supposed to convince the other men that they were in no danger and it was probably just a software glitch and they have nothing to be afraid of. A single red spinning overhead emergency light illuminated the room, and Athena could tell it was within arms reach of her ceiling vent.

She smiled and pushed against the vent, letting it fall through with her along with it. Once she cleared the threshold of the vent, she swung Xiphos to her right, shattering the only light. The high ceiling gave her enough time to get most of a flip in allowing the gladiator to land on her feet. Or she would have if she hadn't landed on the reassuring goon. Her foot collided solidly with the crown of his head, his neck curled back violently and with a snap he fell to the ground dead. Athena managed to turn her awkward fall into a decent combat roll, which kept her from getting shred by the hail of bullets that landed inside the goons deceased comrade's previous position . "C-carl?" The voice came from the doorway, and Athena pounced at the sound. The man had likely never fought an ATLAS supersoldier in the pitch dark before, and if he had, then he hadn't learned from it. Athena landed a hard shot to what should have been his liver, then twisted around to choke him out from behind. The man swung his head back though, catching Athena in the lip and causing her to stumble back. Athena had always been told that she had exceptional night vision even for an enhanced, as well as an excellent sense of danger, which was how she managed to notice the pistol barrel reeling around to face her in the near darkness. In two trained heartbeats she had pulled the pistol away from her, severed his arm with her sword, and in a practiced twirl decapitated the man before he could make a sound.

The third man was keeping suprisingly still, his silhouette standing confidently in a firing stance, Nina cowering behind him. Athena stepped forward silently, hoping to use the darkness to her advantage.

Only to step on a peice of discarded trash. The _crunch_ was subtle enough that Athena thought she may have gotten lucky before the shock rounds started flying. She dived behind a counter but not before her shield ate several rounds. The electricity coursed through her for another few precoius seconds before depleting her shield entirely, and then she just had to grit her teeth until the painful convulsions passed. Footsteps were rapidly approaching her and Athena couldn't trust her legs to make a quick escape. Instead, she engaged Aspis and held the energy shield above her head. The man vaulted her improvised cover, a hail of bullets failing to breach her barrier. Eventually she heard anempty _click_. She threw her mighty shield, decapitating him and returning to her gauntlet in a clean move.

She took a deep breath, rose on her shakey legs, and strode up to the nurse in the corner. It was clear that Nina couldn't see her as the assassin neared. Deciding to try her luck, Athena wrapped her fingers around Nina's neck, lifting her off the ground with one hand and pinning her to the wall. Nina grabbed at the hand around her neck, but Athena took the Nurse's fingers in her hands and squeezed, the feeling of bones breaking filling her with satisfaction. "You will absolve Janey Springs of her debt, and you will never harm or threaten to harm her in any way again," her voice dripped so much venom that Nina probably didnt even know who was saying it.

 _Say no,_ she thought. _Say no so I can make it hurt, so I can destroy you. Just try me._ Unfortunately Nina had enough sense of self-preservation to make an atrempt to nod. Athena gripped her neck tightly, slamming the woman into the walk until she felt the larger woman go limp, because she could.

With her adrenalin fading, Athena began to feel her injuries a bit more. Her lip throbbed painfully from the headbut, and the ach of electric shock still swept through her body in regular intervals, albiet weaker. The only real injury she had sustained was a shallow gunshot wound that was already beginning to heal itself.

Lacking a twenty foot vertical jump in the standard gravity of Nina's shop, she couldn't get out the same way as she had entered, and being unable to find an emergency release to the airlock doors, it was a of hacking and slashing at the door with Xiphos until she had a hole large enough to squeeze out of.

Taking a breath, Athena realized that this would probably be the best possible time for her to track down Janey and make her attempt for redemption.

Athena went to the bar.

-

 **A/N: Two part apology. First and foremost, I am genuinely sorry for how long this took, the next chapter will be done by July 4th, I promise. My second apology is for the quality if this chapter. Something is definitely wrong here, but I can't tell what. I've proof read this and revised it into oblivion but I cant tell what it is. I know that this is a fanfic of a fanfic but still, I feel as if I have failed on a quality level. If any of the three to six if you have any ideas or critiques please review and have a wonderful day/night!**


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